With the availability of different media services presenting the same media content (e.g., a sporting event), a multimedia user may want to view a video based media service from one authoring source while listening an audio based media service from a second authoring source. The video based media service represents a nationally televised broadcast of a sporting event, and the audio based media service represents a local radio broadcast of the same sporting event. There may be a perceivable delay between the playing of both media services, because of differences in the respective broadcasting timelines of each media service (due to, e.g., different delays introduced in the creation or broadcast of the media services).
“Lip-synching” is an effect that results from a similar synchronization problem, but deals with the playback of media services from the same authoring and content source. Traditional solutions involve inserting information into the audio and video media services representing the media content, which may be analog or digital, providing time markers for aligning the media services for presentation. Specialized reception equipment then synchronizes the audio and video media services based on the supplied time markers, minimizing the lip-synching effect. Many media services however do not have time markers available for reducing the lip-synching effect.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus for synchronizing media services (e.g., broadcast and/or streaming) from the same or different authoring sources such that the method and apparatus do not rely upon time markers and specialized equipment to processing the supplied time markers.